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Continental-Sponsored Autonomous Vehicle from Carnegie Mellon Wins DARPA Urban ChallengeAutomotive Suppliers' Active Safety Sensor Technology Plays Key Role in Victory by Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing Team
VICTORVILLE, Calif., Nov. 4 -- Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing Team, sponsored by Continental Automotive Systems, won the 2007 Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge and the $2 million first place prize in the autonomous vehicle competition, held at the former George Air Force Base November 3 in Victorville, CA.

The 2007 Urban Challenge represents the first time that autonomous (driverless) vehicles traversed suburban roads at speed with real traffic represented by 50 moving sedans with human drivers and the 11 race finalists in robot-on-robot competition. The autonomous vehicles in the DARPA Urban Challenge were required to navigate, park, and handle traffic on a 60-mile urban course within a six-hour time limit. The vehicles operated without human guidance and relied only on sensors and computers. The also had to obey traffic laws, merge into moving traffic, avoid obstacles, and negotiate intersections. In addition to the $2 million first prize, $1 million and $500,000 were awarded to the second-and third-place finishers, respectively.

"This was an historic day in the push to make vehicles safer and smarter," said Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, president Continental Automotive Systems. " We have been saying 'smart cars are coming' and there was clear evidence of that this weekend. The Continental environmental sensors performed flawlessly and helped Tartan Racing's driverless vehicle 'Boss' see the path to victory, moving intelligent vehicle technology forward. To watch these vehicles speed off on their own after months of experimenting was really exhilarating. It was a thrill for us to be part of the first place Tartan Racing Team at the DARPA Urban Challenge and I know what we have learned about sensorics and data fusion will be applied to future passenger vehicles giving drivers' additional tools to improve safety on the road.

At Continental we believe the Urban Challenge was not 'pie in the sky' thinking on display. Instead, we view the competition as an incubator for the driving experience of the future. What DARPA seeks to demonstrate we at Continental embrace as our fundamental business culture as we strive to offer our customers ... and 'consumers who are their customers' ... the very best in automotive innovation, performance and reliability."

Continental provided to Tartan Racing an array of advanced active safety radar and lidar sensors that help vehicles anticipate trouble before it happens, as well as its General brand Grabber UHP tires with Contiseal. In addition, the tier one automotive supplier provided engineering resources, including an imbedded engineer with expertise in sensor data fusion that like the human brain, enhances computing capability by combining information from different sensors to provide the robot and image of the total traffic environment in order to make appropriate decisions.

"Our sponsorship and active involvement with the Urban Challenge underscores our dedication to leveraging active safety technology in the development of intelligent vehicles to change the driving experience for the better-making individual mobility safer, more comfortable and sustainable," added Dr. Neumann.

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